Panel of the UNESCO Chair at the Estonian Annual Conference of Humanities

In April, the first Estonian Annual Conference of Humanities was held at Tallinn University. The UNESCO Chair convened the panel The Potential of Heritage Humanities – Future Heritage and the (Applied) Interplay of Past and Present.

The overarching theme of the conference was Future Humanities: How the Humanities Shape Society in an Era of Transformative Changes. The panel moderated by Kristin Kuutma, Head of the UNESCO Chair, focused on the links between past, present and future in the field of cultural heritage, looking at imaginations of future heritage and at the potential of heritage for application.

Kristin Kuutma explains: 

Heritage is one of the categories that shapes today's society and marks ongoing turns. We convened this panel to reflect on the lines of power marking equality or inequality, inclusion or exclusion, are emerging in the field of cultural heritage. Does the approach of future heritage open or close the way to reducing inequalities?

The panel also included a presentation by our good partner Ave Matsin from the Viljandi Culture Academy, where similar topics are dealt with in the framework of the MA program Creative Applications of Cultural Heritage.
 

Image Kristin Kuutma and Ave Matsin.

Image Greeting by the president of the Estonian Academy of Sciencea Tarmo Soomre.

There were three presentations in the panel (summaries are available only in Estonian):

Untouched by Heritage? National Minorities and their Cultures in Estonia
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies on Intangible Cultural Heritage, University of Tartu

Local Natural Materials. From Heritage Technologies to Sustainable Use of Resources
Ave Matsin, Viljandi Culture Academy, University of Tartu

Integrating the Counseling Heritage of Estonian Family Magazines (1930-1940) into Contemporary Health Humanities
Merle Talvik, Taimi Tulva, Kristi Puusepp, Ülle Ernits, Tallinn Healt Care College and Tallinn University

See also the homepage and Facebook page of the UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible CUltural Heritage.